Soul of Silver
by The Next Man
Summary: James doesn't want to be a hero. He doesn't want to "catch 'em all". He doesn't even want to become the Champion. But the world doesn't really care. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

_Beep…beep…beep…WHAM_

I dropped my arm away from the insistent alarm. "It's too early…" I moaned, curling up tighter underneath my blankets. "And too cold…"

"JAMES WILLIAMSON, WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!" my mom shouted from downstairs. Ah, mothers, vigilantes of promptness and punishers of the late-waking. I reluctantly rolled out of bed and onto the floor. Thud. "NOW GET DRESSED AND COME DOWNSTAIRS!" she hollered. Now, I love my mom, but damn she's got a pair of lungs on her.

"What's the big rush!" I shouted back, lurching to my dresser and pulling on a shirt and pair of pants.

"DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS?" Of course I did. It was April 30th, when the responses Pokemon League trainer applications were sent out… oh.

I was instantly fully awake, dashing around my room to gather my stuff. Here was my cap and over there were my socks and where were my shoes?

"Mom! Where are my shoes!" I shouted, peering into my shrubbery.

"THEY'RE DOWN HERE!" I ran down the stairs, and mom met me at the bottom. I had her messy brown hair, although she wore hers longer than I did; to the shoulders rather than to the ears as I did. I had my dad's blue eyes rather than her green ones, though, and took after him in height as well, being almost a foot taller than mom; who wasn't tiny herself. I was 6'8", and the tallest guy in town ever since my dad…

"Hi mom," I said, wrapping my arms around her. She squeaked and wriggled out. It had been a morning ritual ever since I grew too big for her to do it to me.

"You're finally awake," she said, stepping back and looking me over. "Your friend Lyra was here a few minutes ago, by the way. She was playing hide-and-go-seek with her marill."

"Yes, yes, but did my application go through?" I prompted.

Mom nodded. "It did. Congratulations, honey!" She passed me a large Manila folder, packed with something, or several something's. My name was scrawled across it in sharpie, along with a number: 2351317.

I tore it open and dumped the contents on the table. Six small red and white spheres, poke balls in their reduced state. A one-way Box Uploader, to send any extra pokemon caught to the Box system. Six épée pens - one to help inoculate me against the normal diseases I might encounter as well as to boost my adrenaline responses, so I could defend myself from wild pokemon until I could send mine out - the other five were human-size doses of antidotes, just in case. And most important of all, at least to me, a small rectangle of white plastic.

I picked up my trainer card reverently, and read it._ James Williamson_, it said, along with a picture of me. _Age: 16. __Trainer ID: 2351317. Credits: 500._

I grinned at mom. "Finally! Now I just need someone's help to catch pokemon and I can be off to see the world!"

"Oh, Professor Elm was looking for you." Mom smiled evilly. "He said he had a favor to ask of you - maybe you can get his help. Now, do you have everything you need to go out?"

"Yeah, I - no. Mom, I'm still missing my shoes."

She pointed to where they sat in the corner. "And your bag is over on the counter. Your journal is in it too."

"Thanks mom," I said, grabbing the bag. "Where's my wallet?"

"Side pocket."

"Bye!"

* * *

I stepped outside of my house, took a deep breath of fresh air, and was immediately smacked in the face with a high-speed marill. "Gah!" I shouted, stepping back into the door. "Marill, don't slam into people!"

Lyra's little blue fuzzball made a chuckling noise, like a gurgling stream, and released her arms from my head, falling to the ground. The little beast glanced to the left, where her mistress was, and hurried off to join Lyra. "Furball," I said affectionately, walking to the Professor's lab.

"Hey, who's that?" I wondered aloud. Standing beside the Lab, looking in through a window, was a young man, about my age, with long, straight, red hair. He seemed to be taking notes on whatever was happening in the lab. I stepped up to him. "What're you doing? You know that the lab is a public building, right?"

But the young man didn't seem to hear me. "…So this is the famous Elm Pokemon Lab…" he muttered. Then he seemed to notice me. "What are you staring at?" he demanded, and shoved me back a step before staring into the Lab again. I just shook my head and entered.

The Lab was filled with equipment; the bookshelves were crammed not just with books but with chemistry apparatuses as well, there were several huge bins filled with apricorns, I could see an energizer in the back of the room, there was a container for pokeballs, and several large racks of cds. Professor Elm's assistant, also Lyra's dad, was trying to bring some order to the books on the shelves, hampered by the test-tube collections. When I greeted him, he said "Hello, James. Professor Elm is at the back of the room."

I gently tapped on Professor Elm's shoulder; he was sitting at his computer, surfing some website. I had to stifle a chuckle when I realized he was watching a video of a mankey someone had dressed in a tuxedo.

He spun around and stood up, grinning widely. "Hi, James! I've been waiting for you. First of all, congratulations on having your application accepted."

I grinned. "I just need a pokemon, now."

"I might be able to help with that..." he murmured before changing the subject. "Listen, do you know anything about my current research?" I shook my head, and he continued. "As you know, pokemon are carried in pokeballs these days. But before the pokeball was invented, people used to walk with pokemon. Just like your friend Lyra does!"

"Actually, we had apricorns before pokeballs," I interrupted, pointing at a half-carved apricorn being used as a paperweight on the professor's desk.

Elm waved this off. "Same technology, just not as developed. Anyway, pokeballs are great because you can carry more than one pokemon - as many as you wanted, if not for the league's restrictions. But walking with po

kemon must have had some advantages. It could have something to do with how pokemon grow or evolve…" he drifted off, probably considering his favorite subject. Of course, there hadn't been any advances in that subject since the discovery of elemental stones more than thirty years ago; while it was known how every pokemon evolved, if they did, it was unknown why. Or how it was actually done. "So, I'm going to give you a pokemon!" I smiled. "Can you walk beside this pokemon, outside of its pokeball, to see if this brings any special feelings or bonds between pokemon and people?" I nodded. " The device over there has some pokemon you could choose from…" His computer dinged. "Oh, I've got an e-mail. Hold on a moment, James."

I waited politely as he read his new mail. "Okay, listen," he said, turning to me again. "I have this friend, who people call Mr. Pokemon. He keeps finding weird things and raving about his great discoveries. Anyway, I just got an email from him saying that this time it's real." Elm sighed. "It's probably another pokemon egg, but we're still so busy with our pokemon research…"

I shrugged. "I can go get it. I'm going to be allowed out on my own in just a few minutes, after all."

Elm smiled. "Great! As I was saying, you can choose one of the pokemon over there." He pointed to a stasis chamber which held three pokeballs.

I looked at the chamber. It was tall and cylindrical, and had a rotating base. Three pokeballs sat there, each, I supposed, with a different pokemon within. There were buttons to rotate the base, and a little screen showed the pokemon inside. "Hm…" Totodile, chikorita, and cyndaquil. Water, fire, and grass. All three were very cute, but that shouldn't really be a consideration. "Professor, can I take them out and meet them?"

"Of course," Professor Elm said with a benign smile.

A few minutes later, I set the third pokeball back in the stasis chamber. I had played with all three of them. Cyndaquil was sweet, and had curled up in my lap immediately. Chikorita, on the other hand, had seemed rather mean, staying away from me and sneering. Totodile had been playful, leaping around joyfully and snapping playfully at my fingers; the one time he had caught me, he merely lipped my finger, rather than biting it.

After some thought, I made my decision, and took cyndaquil. I let her loose from his pokeball, and walked back over to Professor Elm.

"How's walking with a pokemon?" he asked "It's not bad, is it?" I nodded in agreement, patting cyndaquil where she rested on my shoulder, and he smiled. "Now then, Mr. Pokemon likes to wander everywhere, looking for rarities. Right now, though, his house is past Cherrygrove City, a little to the north."

After a few more minutes of small talk, I left. Lyra's dad pressed some potions on me in case cyndaquil got hurt, and I stepped outside.

Lyra was there, and greeted me with a smile. "James!" she exclaimed. "You picked the cyndaquil! Quite a cute fellow you've got there!" Cyndaquil preened a little, wriggling on my shoulder. "When you walk with him, he'll become more friendly. Talk to him sometimes, too. You should show your mom, too! Bye!" That's Lyra for you; she gets excited easily, and cuts conversations off quickly.

I turned to my new Pokemon. "You know," I told it, "'Cyndaquil' is a bit long. We need to get you a new name." She nodded agreeably, and I thought for a moment. "How about Doman? Or Tol?" The little creature made a disgusted face at both. "Alright, what about Cindy?" The newly dubbed Cindy grinned and threw her little arms around my head in a warm hug. "Now, let's go meet the folks."

That night, after introducing mom to Cindy, I returned her to her pokeball and took the adrenaline epee pen as I sat on my bed. "Right," I said, gritting my teeth - the process was supposed to be painless, but according to Lyra had been 'harrowing'. She refused to speak of it, saying only that the dreams the night after were the problem, and the longer between taking it and sleeping the worse they got. Fortunately, I had a sleeping pill to take as well, one which I never had dreams while on. I pressed the epee pen agaisnt my arm and pushed the button, waiting as the level of silvery liquid within dropped, and then took the sleeping pill. Within five minutes, I was out like a light.

But the dreams came anyway.

I found myself alone in an empty labyrinth of glass, floating in empty space with faint stars beyond it. It didn't seem so bad at first. But I soon found that the perfect light which permeated all of my glass cage wasn't perfect. There were shadows, flickering around the edge of my sight, refusing to become clear.

As time passed, they became bolder and bolder. After what seemed like hours of wandering, I was certain that the shadows covered everything that I couldn't see, and were beginning to crawl over me. I was itchy, all over my back, and I felt more and more weight piling on me. I was constantly shifting and turning, trying to get the things off, but they simply slid over each other and kept holding.

Finally, I managed to twist enough to slam my fist into one of the shadows and grab it. The other shadows fled my sight, leaving only the one in my grasp to my view. Before I could understand what the hell I was holding, I was woken by a scream.

* * *

I woke up screaming, in harmony with the scream coming from my mom's room. It was cut off after a moment as I rolled off my bed, feeling as though red-hot needles were jabbing all over my body, and that molten lava was being poured through my veins, and that my skin was too thick and hard, and that my hair was on fire. I was a mass of pure pain, so much that I almost didn't notice when the other scream was cut-off.

I struggled to my feet, doing my best to ignoring my body's screaming. Funnily enough, the red-hot pain seemed to get easier to bear as I went on, forcing myself out my door and down the corridor towards mom's room.

"Damn it!" someone swore roughly from ahead. "Why couldn't the bitch come quietly?"

"You know they're always like this, James," came a smoother, almost silky voice. "They never know what's good for them."

"I know, I know. Still, I just wish..."

"What?"

There was a sigh and a kissing sound as I struggled with mom's doorknob - it seemed to weigh too much. "Jessie, why are people so idiotic?"

A silken laugh. "Come on, James, let's take her to the boss." The door swung open, and I saw the people who had attacked my mom.

One was tall and muscular, almost too much for his clothes, a pair of baggy white cargo pants and a white jacket with a small red R on each side of the collar. I didn't even realize how much I was registering in such a small time, but his eyes were scanning me just as fast, almost too fast for me to tell that they were a sinister purple. His hair was shoulder-length and a dark brown with a tinge of purple in it. The man, presumably James, had mom slung unconscious over one shoulder, dressed in only a nightdress.

The other kidnapper was shorter and slim, with long, dark red hair down to her waist. Her face, thin and aristocratic, would have been quite beautiful if not for her eyes, as red as her hair and glinting evilly. The woman, presumably Jessie, was wearing a modified version of the same outfit James wore - the pants were tight and short, as was the jacket, which was cut off to show a toned abdomen, and another, larger red R was proudly blazoned on her chest, which I was too angry to care about the considerable size of.

"Who the fuck are you?" James demanded a moment later.

"Let her go!" I yelled, finding new strength as the pain finally faded, and I managed to stand up straighter. I reached for Cindy's pokeball, but I was still in the plain white pajamas recommended for the injection process, and her pokeball was still in my room.

"Or what?" Jessie demanded, smirking at me. "You don't even have any pokemon! Are you going to punch us into submission?" she laughed, and while it was just as smooth and beautiful as before I could now hear the heartless glee behind it. "James, snap him like a twig!"

"As you wish," he said with a smile. I readied myself, but he didn't even drop mom, simply lashing out with a foot and slamming it into my head, knocking me aside. The last thing I heard before my eyes closed was Jessie laughing once more, the sound slowly fading as I blacked out.

**A/N: I've decided to rewrite this story with a few modifications in order to make it more interesting and give it a more serious tone, as you can probably tell by the last scene in this chapter. Clearly, Jessie and James aren't going to be joke characters in this story - they'll be more like they are in the manga (where they're psychopaths) - along with this, I've worked out reasons for some of the nonsensical things in the games and anime which are sort of explained here. Let me quickly spell them out:**

**It's a communist society, so healthcare and food and such are free. What's _not_ free is equipment for training pokemon, which needs to be earned by defeating other trainers. Additionally, the four-move restriction. In an official pokemon battle as sanctioned by the Pokemon League, any pokemon is only allowed to use four moves they're registered as knowing from a list maintained by the League, and all pokemon move at once, using one move then returning to their trainer to find what to do next. In an unofficial battle, however, such as battles with wild pokemon, the trainers can have their pokemon use any move they're able to use (so even if you replace your Quilava's flamethrower with fire blast within League battles, it would still remember how to use flamethrower), and aren't restricted by taking turns. Finally, pokemon in pokeballs (at least, pokeballs registered to a trainer card) are all automatically linked to a very powerful item kept at the League which is similar to a Focus Sash. Any move which would kill the pokemon instead just leaves them unconscious.  
**

**Finally, a quick note about the injection James takes here - it's standard for all trainers. The purpose is mainly to improve the trainer's adrenaline response so that, when wild pokemon attack, the trainer can survive long enough to send out one or more of their own pokemon.  
**

**That's all for now, but please remember to review. I read _every_ review that I get, and I respond to many of them through PM. If you have a question, I won't answer it in an A/N, I'll PM you. If you're using a guest account to review, and you leave a question, please also leave another way for me to get in contact with you (email, a reddit account, etc).  
**


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up in handcuffs.

I glanced around, confused. What had happened? The last thing I remembered was taking the standard injection and going to sleep. And now I was in an interrogation room, just like in movies. How did this - then in came back to me.

Mom had been kidnapped!

A police officer entree the room: it was Jenny, the friendly officer who patrolled New Bark Town. She had an angry look on her face as she sat across the table and stared at me. I just stared back.

"So," she said after a few minutes. "Mr. Who-ever-you-are-"

I furrowed my brow, confused. "Jenny, you know me!" I interrupted. "I-"

She ignored me, talking right through me. "You were found unconscious last night in the Williamson residence, from which Sarah Williamson and James Williamson have been kidnapped. Why were you there and who else was there?"

"Jenny!" I shouted. "I AM JAMES WILLIAMSON!"

She stared. "No, you're not," she said dismissively. "Alright, you do look kind of similar, but he has brown hair and purple eyes. You don't."

I blinked. "What?"

Now Jenny seemed as confused as me. She pulled a small mirror out of a pocket and turned it to face me. I looked into the face of a stranger.

My facial features were the same: long, thin nose, high cheekbones, a pointed chin; but my eyes and hair had changed. All color was leeched from them, leaving only hair as white as snow and a clear, white gaze. I stared, open-mouthed.

"What happened last night, James?" Jenny demanded, apparently having accepted that I was who I said I was.

I told her, haltingly, about the previous night. She made me go back several times to give her more details, and by the time I finished, she had the whole story, from when I applied to the League to when I had been knocked out.

Jenny sighed. "I believe you," she told me. "But we have no other suspects here, and we can't even prove you are James Williamson. I'm afraid I'll have to put your Trainer's license under probation."

I blinked. I wasn't sure what that was, but I didn't like the sound of it. "What does that mean?"

"Any TM's will only work for you once," she said, "they'll wipe themselves afterwards. HM's will work repeatedly, though. You're required to assist any gym leader who requests it, and you have to visit the leader of any town with a gym. There are only two ways off probation."

"And those are?"

"Your license expires in ten years, and probations are revised at renewals," Jenny said. "Otherwise... challenge the League. If you make it to the Elite Four and Champion, then beating them revokes the probation. If you lose it's up to them."

I growled. I didn't want to challenge the League, I just wanted to travel Johto! And if I ran into Jesse and James again, well... "Fine," I snapped. "Fine! I'll go through the League. I'll get this over with as fast as I can. But there's a condition."

"I'm not sure you're in any position to make demands," Jenny said sternly.

"I want to hear anything you find about the investigation into my mom's kidnapping," I said flatly. "Now give me my trainer's license, and let me go get Cindy from her pokeball."

"Your license doesn't look like you anymore," Jenny pointed out, uncuffing me.

"I'll use some of mom's hair dye," I said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have an errand to run for Professor Elm. And then I'll be on my way to Violet City. They have a Gym there, yes?"

"Yes…"

"Good-bye!"

After collecting Cindy, changing into my normal clothes, and dying my hair back to brown, I quickly set off. I didn't want to stay in Newbark Town. I wanted to get going quickly, so I could get the whole thing settled. I released Cindy from her pokeball so she could walk with me, but she decided to ride on my head instead.

I noticed, as I passed the Lab, that the red-haired guy wasn't staring through the window anymore. Perhaps he had gone in to speak with the professor.

An hour or so later, after reaching Cherrygrove, I had calmed down significantly. I was still angry that those… I was still angry that mom had been kidnapped, and I was determined to deal with Jesse and James if I came across them. But I wasn't really angry with Jenny for making me go through the League anymore. She had no choice: it was her job. I would just have to go through and –

My train of thought was interrupted by a growl from behind me which quickly became a snarl. I whirled to see that a large ratata, almost up to my knee, was about to spring at me. Despite myself, I grinned fiercely as Cindy leapt down from my head to face off against the wild pokemon. Battling was something I loved. And as this was not an official League battle, I wasn't restricted to those moves Cindy was registered with.

At the moment, she had rudimentary flame-producing abilities as well as basic physical skills: she was registered with Ember, Smokescreen, and Tackle. But I could use her abilities however I wanted in this non-League battle.

"Cindy," I snapped as the rattata tensed to leap. "Dodge and leave smoke behind." The rattata jumped as Cindy enveloped herself in a thick cloud of smoke, emanating from the flame glands on her back. I held my breath for a moment before I saw that she had slid out the other side, leaving the rattata confused within.

"Scatter fire around it, Cindy!" I called. "From above!" I watched, concerned, but Cindy interpreted my command perfectly. She clenched and sprayed fire up into the air, where it rained down on the rattata, still confused by the smoke and unsure where she was. I heard it yelp in pain.

A moment later, it dashed out of the cloud of smoke and finally spotted Cindy. "Again," I ordered, and once more she dodge out of an expanding cloud of smoke, then rained fire on the poor rattata.

After only one more repetition of the process, the rattata looked nearly dead. "Body slam it," I said. Cindy rushed forward and slammed into the rattata. It squealed in pain and collapsed. It didn't move for a few seconds, so I crouched down to see if it had a pulse.

None. I had won my first battle.

**A/N: Bit of a morbid ending there, but that's how I imagine most battles with wild pokemon ending. Pokeballs have an emergency recall feature so a trainer's pokemon can't die – it'll be pulled in and kept in stasis until a pokemon center can repair the data, thus healing the pokemon. Wild pokemon, however, have no such luxury.**


	3. Chapter 3

After about a half hour of walking, I reached a small house in the woods. The mailbox, rusted shut, read _M . Pok m n_ – the other letters had faded away. "I guess this is the place," I muttered.

I walked up to the house and knocked. "The door's open!" I heard from within, so I turned the knob and stepped inside.

It wasn't a very large house – there was a kitchen to my right and a sitting area in the middle of the house. A set of stairs in the back led upwards, and a fire burned merrily in the fireplace.

Two old men were sitting in the living room - one aged and bent over, the other more sprightly, with a white lab coat. "Hello?" I said questioningly.

The one in the lab coat stepped up to me and grabbed my chin, twisting my face back and forth. "You look familiar…" he said. "Hm… well, are you here to collect the egg for Professor Elm?"

I blinked. "Oh… yes."

He nodded. "I'm Professor Oak," he introduced himself. "I live in Kanto, west of here. I'm a specialist in pokemon anatomy."

"I think I've heard Professor Elm mention you," I said. "Didn't you teach him everything he knows?"

"Some of it," Oak admitted. "He's gone on to make quite a name for himself in the field of pokemon evolution. In any case, I was just here visiting my friend Mr. Pokemon." The other old man gave a cheery wave.

Oak smiled. "Well, I'll let you collect the egg and be on your way, then," he said. "Although…"

"Yes?"

"How would you like to do a little interning?" Oak invited me. "I'm always looking for more talented young fellows to help me collect information." He held out a small red device, about the size of a trainer card. "This… is a Pokédex."

"What's a Pokédex?" I asked, taking it. There was a little black camera-like device on the back of it, and I found that it flipped open to display a small screen.

"It's a device that automatically scans pokemon and uploads information on them to my system." Oak explained. "By distributing them, we can find out more about pokemon – from their habitats to their average sizes to their capabilities."

I nodded. "Okay. I can understand why you'd want to get these out to people. But why me?"

Oak shrugged. "I don't have anyone in Johto yet, but I know that the indigenous pokemon here are a little different than the ones in Kanto. Professor Elm obviously trusts you, but you have the look of a man off to see the world. I always prefer travelers to the ones who just stay in one place. More information that way."

"Okay." I slipped the Pokédex into my pocket. "Is there something I have to do when I meet a pokemon?"

Oak shook his head. "It senses the psychic energy all pokemon have and uses that to scan them. You can leave it entirely in your pocket. Just be sure to pull it out if it dings."

I nodded. "Okay. Now then. Egg?"

Oak pointed to where a large, speckled egg sat in a cabinet. "Right over there. You might want to put it in a pokeball, though."

I pulled one out and tapped it against the egg, sucking it into the red sphere. That left me with five, since Cindy's ball had been provided by Elm. "I'll be on my way, then," I said, nodding to the pair.

"Meet lots of pokemon!" Oak ordered me.

"Have fun, that's the important thing," said Mr. Pokemon.

I waved, and began walking back to New Bark Town.

Before long, I arrived at Cherrygrove City. I passed through quickly, stopping off at the healing center to make sure that the egg was faring okay in its pokeball and to have dinner. I checked the time, and saw that it was about 7:00. I still had time to make it back to New Bark before I would really need to sleep. I'd just stay the night before heading out again.

But as I left Cherrygrove, I ran into someone. Literally, with a smack. I had been looking at my map, and he must have been doing something similar.

"Sorry!" I said, rubbing my forehead. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he snapped, pushing me back.

I squinted at him. "Hey, I've seen you before. Aren't you the guy who was looking into the Lab?"

"Aren't the guy who got that stupid cyndaquil?" the red-haired guy snapped.

"Hey!" I said as Cindy bristled.

"_My_ pokemon is much better than that dumb rodent," red-hair said smugly.

"Cindy could stomp all over whatever you've got!" I said angrily. "What is it, a _magicarp?_"

"Way better," sneered red-hair. "Go, totodile!" He tossed out a pokeball, and the same playful little totodile from Elm's lab popped out.

"Come on, Cindy," I said, and she hopped down from my shoulder. "You can take him!"

"Standard League rules?" I asked coldly as Cindy and totodile waved to each other.

"No items," red-hair said.

"Fine." I glanced at totodile and made a guess at what moves it might have. Totodile couldn't be very strong yet, so wouldn't have much. Probably Bubble or Water Gun, Bite, and not much else. I would have to watch out for the water-type move, and I would have to use Tackle instead of Ember. Totodile's scales were thick on its back, and would resist the fire. As Ember was ranged, it would easily be able to turn and present the thick scales before the flames reached it.

"Ready," said red-hair.

"Three…" we said in unison. "Two… one…

"Smokescreen!" I snapped as soon as we finished the countdown. Cindy immediately whirled and sprayed a thick cloud of smoke into totodile's eyes. It stumbled back, blinking, and tried to obey its master by spouting a powerful stream of water at Cindy, but missed due to the smoke.

I grinned. It was the next round, and I had the advantage. "Three… two… one… Tackle!" Cindy slammed bodily into totodile, knocking it back. She quickly scampered out of range as it tried to bite her. "Missed again!"

"Shut up!" yelled red-hair. "Three… two… one… Water Gun!"

"Tackle!"

Cindy slammed into the totodile again, but this time its water gun caught her, sending her tumbling across the road. "No!" I rushed over, pulling out a potion, but was stopped by red-hairs sneering voice.

"No items, remember? Three… two… one…"

"Tackle!" I snapped again, and Cindy bravely slammed into totodile, who growled at her before spouting more water. She dodged again, but I knew it was only a matter of time before she was hit again. And she couldn't take another hit like that.

"Three…"

I frantically wracked my brains, trying to think through the League rules to find a loophole. I couldn't heal her – we were battling without items.

"Two…"

I couldn't use the same kind of strategy as I had with the ratata. Both pokemon had to start acting at the same moment, and Cindy was faster than totodile. It would see her stepping out of the smokescreen, there was no way it wouldn't.

"One…"

I saw it.

"Cindy!" I called. "Tackle low!" Thank Arceus, she understood and the totodile didn't. Cindy tackled the ground, deliberately missing, and skidded across the dirt road underneath the watergun. And now she was right underneath the totodile for the next round.

"Three… two… one…" I saw the gleam of triumph in red-hair's eyes. He had no idea what was coming.

"Ember!" I snapped. Cindy tensed and released a powerful blast of fire, right at the soft underbelly of the totodile. It wasn't resistant to fire I there, I saw. The water gun went high as it jerked back in pain. One more hit would finish it off. "Three… two… one…

"Tackle." The totodile hit the ground with a _thud_, followed by an electronic buzz as its pokeball automatically recalled it.

"You…" the redhead's face was as red as his hair.

Cindy scampered back to me and I gave her a potion. "I what?" I said mildly. "Beat you?"

"Impossible," red-hair tried to say. "You're a weakling!"

"I'm not the one who has to pay the fine," I observed. "Hand it over. Half your credits. You know the standard League rules."

Red-hair pulled his trainer card out, as did I, and tapped the red minus on the corner of his when I tapped a green plus on mine. They would sense each other and his would send over the right amount of credits automatically.

As red-hair stomped away, I realized that he hadn't put away his trainer card completely – it had fallen from his pocket. "Hey, _asshole_!" I called, bending over and picking it up. "You dropped something!"

"Give me that!" he said with a sneer, stalking back to snatch his card from my hand.

"I can understand why you might want to lose it," I said understandingly. "I mean, if _my_ name was-"

"Shut up!"

I laughed, and began walking again. I wanted to be done with this.


End file.
